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How in the world could Obama vet, nominate and secure the appointments of cabinet members for back IRS finances, this should have been addressed as well 18 months ago. Here we have an administration operating inconsistently as if the country "agrees" with Obama's immature decisions.

Actually Dr K... you are wrong on 2 counts.
1. the DFAS employees were not fired for their finances, they lost their Security Clearance as a result of their bad decisions... anyone who has ever held a Security clearance knows this can happen.
2. Illegal aliens have broken federal immigration law by being in this country... therefore they ARE criminals

Really? Are they not SEIU? This means that no matter what - they cannot, will not and never will be fired or even reprimanded.
Geez, you think their Federal Employee union will allow this to happen?
Get real.

Amazing. Tax cheat Tim "Which way do we go George" Geithner continues to keep his job. The criminals in Washington (Obama, Pelosi, Frank, Dodd, et al) continue to keep their job. I guarantee it was for the personal political views and not their finances.
What a crock.

John V. Karavitis Spot on observation! The rules that apply to the "small people" (sorry, had to steal the phrase used by the Swedish BP official) do not apply to the high and mighty. If you went to college with the right people, you could literally be raping babies in the middle of the street, with nary a concern. I do agree that in cases of ensuring national security the government needs to know as much as possible about a potential/current employee, but th can someone over their finances is retarded. Now, they really can't pay their bills! And whose fault is that now? Makes you wonder about things.... John V. Karavitis

It appears, as some commenters noted, that the issue here is not firing employees because they are not managing their personal finances well, but rather that these employees are losing their security clearances because of their personal finances, and they are in jobs that, without a clearance, they cannot hold the job.
This is not all that unusual. Security Clearances are issued based on a "whole person" view which tries to look at various factors which could increase the risk that an individual could harm national security. In stark terms, it is an attempt to try to predict who will be a spy, or would be willing to give away, sell, or even lose, classified information.
Personal financial problems are viewed as an indicator of a potential vulnerability, because financial needs are often associated with a willingness to commit espionage.
As a few commenters point out, this view is not always accepted, and is a bit controversial. But this issue is not related to the Secretary of Treasury, or Obama administration policies. The security clearance policy is, in my experience, non-political, and while there are places to disagree with how it is run in general, and specific policies, it is not seen as part of the political tumult in Washington.
Steven Cash
Harris, Cutler, Cash & Houghteling LLP
scash@hcchlaw.com

Well I for one would think that every federal employee should have minimally a secret national agency check based on HLS guidelines. If you have access to my SSN and birthday I want to know you are not $10 away from living on the street. It is interesting to note that a Top Secret SBI in DOD proper is not good enough to so much as receive a job offer that requires the lower secret access with HLS. Then every federal employee who drives (or could be directed to drive) a US Govt vehicle subject to random drug tests. Add in any future felony conviction (or no contest plea) would likewise terminate federal employment. These three standards would weed (excuse the pun) out the unsuitable for federal service. The problem with all this is half our elected officials would need fired on the spot as well as a high number of political appointees. Making it worse, there may not be enough clean cut Americans out there to fill all these positions.

If anyone remembers the game of swollow the leader in the White House a few years ago. The President has the launch codes. I in cold war Europe of the 70s would have used those codes to end the planet as we know it. Now for me just having something oral with a woman other than my wife would have been grounds to be suspended from the PPP. Lying to Congress (or any supervisor about the same subject), grounds to be releived from duty and put in jail. Yep it is only the little people that ever go to jail.